Lucy Peng’s Net Worth Explained: The Low-Profile Female Founder Who Cofounded Alibaba and Raised Over $22B

• Lucy Peng, one of the original 18 cofounders of Alibaba Group, is one of the wealthiest female tech founders in China.
• The former Alipay and Ant Group CEO has been described as an “artist” within Alibaba.
• Peng has managed to keep a low profile throughout her career.

Lucy Peng, one of China’s wealthiest female tech founders, has played a pivotal role in shaping one of China’s largest e-commerce giants.

As a cofounder of Alibaba Group and one of the driving forces behind payment giant Ant Group, Peng has helped build a digital payments and online retail empire—all while keeping a low profile.

From her early days as a university lecturer to becoming a billionaire entrepreneur, Peng’s journey is a testament to vision and quiet determination.

Lucy Peng’s Net Worth

As of March 2025, Lucy Peng’s exact net worth is not publicly disclosed. However, in 2021, Forbes reported her worth to be approximately $2.9 billion.

Peng’s net worth is closely tied to Alibaba’s stock performance due to her substantial holdings within the company.

Although specific details regarding Peng’s ownership stake are not publicly disclosed, her holdings in Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial technology affiliate, have been well-documented.

Prior to Ant Group’s planned initial public offering (IPO) in 2020, Peng was reported to own the largest individual stake in the company after fellow cofounder Jack Ma.

Peng’s Alibaba Bet

Peng Lei, also known as Lucy Peng, was born in 1971 in Chongqing, China.

In 1994, Peng graduated with a degree in business administration from the Hangzhou College of Commerce at Zhejiang Gongshang University.

Like fellow cofounder Jack Ma, Peng became a professor for five years after graduating.

In 1999, Peng joined forces with Jack Ma and a group of sixteen other like-minded individuals to establish Alibaba, an e-commerce company that would later become a global giant.

Initially, she created and managed the human resources department, where she developed a ” mom-and-pop” model. However, as the years went by and Alibaba grew in success, Peng began wearing more hats within the company.

In a 2009 interview with the Green Herald Magazine, Peng was described as an “artist” who played a vital role in Alibaba’s corporate affairs, administration, marketing, and HR departments.

The article said Peng worked on the “preservation of corporate culture amid the company’s accelerating growth.” While leading the HR departments, Peng referred to herself as a protector of Alibaba’s staff.

“I take care of the people and the forces that unite them,” she told the magazine.

Alipay CEO

In 2010, Peng was elected as the CEO of Alipay, a mobile payment company initially created as a payment solution for Alibaba’s platforms like Taobao and Tmall, ensuring secure transactions between buyers and sellers.

However, due to regulatory concerns over foreign ownership in financial services, Alibaba spun off Alipay in 2011, transferring ownership to a Chinese entity controlled by Jack Ma, Peng and other executives.

Despite the separation, Alibaba maintains a financial stake in Ant Group, and the two companies continue to work closely, with Alipay remaining the primary payment method across Alibaba’s ecosystem.

In just a year after Peng took over as CEO, the company’s payment success rate increased to 95% from 60% , Bloomberg reported.

Under Peng’s leadership, Alipay significantly expanded its user base, becoming China’s leading payment gateway with over 300 million users by 2014.

Ant Group CEO

In 2014, Peng evolved Alipay into Ant Financial Services, now known as Ant Group, aiming to broaden the scope of financial services beyond payments to include wealth management, lending, and insurance.

Throughout her tenure at Ant Financial, Peng raised $22 billion in funding, making her the highest-funded female founder as of 2020.

In 2016, Peng stepped down as CEO to focus on long-term strategy and talent development as executive chairman, a role she held until 2019.

Ant Group Faces Regulatory Scrutiny

In August 2020, Ant Group’s IPO was poised to be the largest in history. The company’s goal was to raise approximately $34.4 billion and be valued at over $310 billion.

However, the IPO was abruptly halted by Chinese regulators just days before its scheduled debut in November 2020, who cited concerns over financial regulations and market stability.

In July 2023, the company announced a share buyback plan that valued Ant at approximately $78.54 billion, a substantial decrease from its previous valuation of $315 billion prior to the canceled IPO.

The company denied rumors in December 2024 that Ant Group was restarting the IPO group. In a statement posted on its Weibo account, the company claimed it “currently has no plans to go public, and there are no plans for a so-called ‘backdoor listing.’

In Peng’s Own Words

“I just enjoyed the process of doing something with a group of enthusiasts.”

“If you have an idea, you can find opportunities to make it happen. However, finding an untapped market or “blue ocean” has become increasingly difficult.”

“The expression in the eyes of the employees was like those often found between sisters and brothers rather than co-workers.”